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Saturday, 22 May 2010

MUM-I got a call from mum sometime in mid April to tell me she was giving me a sewing machine since she owned two. But Mum, I protested a little, I don't know how to sew! I will teach you, she said and without wanting to hear more whining, she bade a quick goodbye and hung up. I felt a little reluctant -lazy to learn a new skill especially one I know I would not pick up fast- and yet, excited-learning a new skill and one I had always wished I had. I am contradictory that way but Mum knows me best.

MELI-A few days later, I read a post on Meli's blog about these sewing-machine pincushions and I left a comment to tell her how they were really cute and laughingly added that my mum was going to teach me how to use a sewing machine. Darling Meli immediately responded to ask me which model my mum would like and that it would be a pleasure for her to send one to her. How lucky for you, she added, that I was able to count on my mum! I was speechless! Meli, you are too generous, no, no, no. No,no ,no, Meli insisted.

MUM- I wrote Meli when I received her package on the17th of this month that I would show her Mum's reaction when she opened the package so here it is, Meli ,a very impromptu photograph. Mum was a little concerned that she was not given time to put on some makeup.

But more than that, Mum could not get over how someone who did not know her would send her something so pretty and handcrafted. I told Mum that I mentioned her on my blog sometimes or in my emails and she told me I must stop advertising her to be someone greater than who she really was and that she was just an ordinary mother.

Not wanting Dad to feel left out, I also showed Dad Meli's gift and told him I would post this picture so he strategically placed the pincushion to hide the fact that he was only appropriately dressed -or not-for bed. I don't think I am bias but isn't my dad undeniably charming even when he is indecent and photogenic even with panda eyes?

I only found out that this is the pincushion that Mum is using for this sewing machine when I took this picture 2 nights ago. It is a coincidence that I had given Meli a similar one. I thought it had a special significance as it is made in a classic vintage style of little Chinese children holding hands, signifying friendship. Look, Meli, my mum had no problems poking needles into them!

MY NEW TOY-This beauty is an antique Singer, a hand cranked sewing machine passed down from my dad's mum. It was probably made in the early 20th century.

Hand crank machines were made before electricity was invented. Mum told me learning to use this machine would be really easy because of the crank. Slow but definitely steady, this machine is very useful for simple stitches.

With details as intricate as these on the silver plate, they really don't make machines like this anymore. I thought these can pass off as Indian motifs.

And here is the barely visible decal work which lined the machine in many places. This particular one sits in the middle of the base of the machine.

MUM- And since I was already there at her home to give her Meli's gift, Mum showed me how to use the machine.As you can see, Mum takes care of her look.

Here is a close up of her impeccably manicured hands. Always the brightest of reds, I have never seen her nails, fingers or toes , unpainted. I seriously don't think I am bias but don't you agree that there is no way my mum looks like she is already 69 years old?

Thanks to my dream to build My Maharajah's Palace, I am closer to my mum now more than ever because of our shared love for crafting. I cannot express in words, my love for this special, modest and beautiful woman who is talented in so many ways. Thank you, Meli, for making my mum happy and bringing the blogging part of my life to her.

Sans ... what beautiful words to your mum ... Too often we forget that that what we are, we owe it to our parents. All our skills and passions are a gift they gave us because we put it to good use. Singer is a treasure and you are lucky to have one teacher so special :-)P.S. Meli's gift is wonderful!Flora

What a lovely post! Even more so because it showed up in my reader!! (but that's a whole other story). A very sweet and thoughtful gift, two wonderful and gorgeous parents and a beauty of a sewing machine! I recently read somewhere that these old sewing machines can do much finer stitching than the modern ones and are perfect for miniature work. You lucky girl!

Flora, I cannot agree with you more. Mothers and daughters, we always have a special bond. Sometimes it's not an easy one :).

For the longest time, my mum and I share little interests although we have similar traits. She has been a housewife for the last 30 over years. My mum has always been very clever with her hands. When we were very young, she would bring us 3 girls to watch a movie and a few days later, we would all have similar new dresses made by her, following the pattern from the girl in the movie. I remembered one especially from this movie where the girl sang "Mother Of Mine". It was a sad movie about a girl who was taken away from her mum when she was very young. Her dresses were really pretty though :):). Mum is also a great cook. Me, on the other hand, was never the homey type.

I think with my passion in making my own miniatures now, Mum is happy that she can finally share with me her talents.

Josje, I am immensely touched by Meli's gesture :):) and I think she has surpassed, in my eye, me at my most thoughtful!

I have yet to try the machine. So they are perfect for minis?? WOW! I can tell my mum really loves this machine. She really takes care of her stuff and they always look very good. I know she even repaired some of the parts herself.

I will probably leave it with her for as long as she wants. I can always go over to her place if I feel like machining something.:)

Meli, if you are reading this, this comment is for you! You are probably the 1st to read this post because of the timing of your email.

You must be too shy to comment here :):)..lol.

Just want to say that both my mum and I are touched immensely by your thoughtfulness. My dad too, one of the kindest and most generous soul I know is happy that you have made his wife so happy ..lol. He likes that a lot especially after he gives my mum some grief (like complaining that he can't find things again!!)...hahaha.

Well, there's not too much to add what have been already said :) Meli's gift is wonderful and your parents seem very nice and warm people :) And the sewing machine is a beauty, I have one old one also, I don't know if it works anymore, I'll have to see.

I better not post any pics of my hands as if your mom would see them she would be shocked - no nails, full of scrapes, covered with paint and dirt (taking a break from gardening) :D

What a beautiful mother you have and those beautiful hands! And I had to giggle at your father beaming at his little pincushion gift! You are lucky to have them both. My mother has been gone now for seven years.

And that sewing machine! I have my grandmother's Singer in the cabinet that was the first electric sewing machine. It is a treasure! I can't imagine using a hand-crank machine!

I like much the face of happiness of his breast, say to him that old woman only is the clothes while the spirit sits down young man(woman).Congratulations for the gift, the singer is the whole jewel.An embrace

Sans, you have a very sweet and pretty mum!!!And I think she will be very happy to read your lovely words...But I want spent a word about your dad: he looks a very happy man and his face is very funny!Congratulation, you have a sweeet swet family.HUgRobertaP.s: My mother used sewing machine too, because she do clothes for work and it's a lot of time I ask her to teach me the use of this machine...let me know if it's simple or not!!!

What a lovely gift! Both the tiny cushion machine AND the old Singer! And your beautiful Mom who will teach you to sew! And your happy Dad! Thank you Sans for sharing your family! I still have my old Singer machine...the only one I have... about the same age as yours it was a treadle machine that someone added a motor to....it is so beautiful and faithful and steady and I love it! So be sure you give your new machine a "whirl" for me! And hug your mother again! :)I LOVE your blog!

Oh what a wonderful story , Sans your posts always brighten my days ! Your beautiful mother and I have the same sewing machine ! You might have seen mine in my shed photos........its a little more worn than your mothers , it was my great grandmothers :0)So kind of Meli to make the lovely pin cushion and such fun to see your mum and dad who look so great for their age and so lovely too :0)julie xxxxxxxx

Thanks Susan!!!! For me to see your parents happy is more than enough!!! Your are so so lucky to have both with you. It's not my case.. specially my mum who was my teacher in needle works.. You have touch my heartYour mum is so beautiful!!Love the old Singer... reminds me when I was a child!!LoveMeli

Ohhhh, Ira, mum likes people who dress neat and decent, unlike her daughter, ME, hahaha but more than that she is impressed with a hard worker.

You work your own garden, you say? You and her have more in common then because she is Mrs Green Thumb herself!! Post your hands, I will show her and let's see what she says in your comment box :):). LOL. Your garden is so gorgeous, she will want to be nice to you so you will invite her for tea. Me too as interpreter since she speaks only Mandarin, my dialect, Hokkien and no English :).

I thank my lucky stars everyday :). My parents are my pillars of strength and they have seen me through very difficult time. Even when my relationship with mum was at its most tenuous (I was a really rebellious teenager), she's the 1st person I called when I was troubled in school. I stayed in the dorm when I was in university.

I have counted at least 4 of our friends here have antique sewing machines :):). Must be a common trait amongst us dh lovers, the fact that we love antiques .

My Dad reactions when I shew him these pics: " It's not fair !! they look much younger than me, they look like they were children of mine!"He is particularly envious of their jet black hair ;o)He couldn't believe they all were same age.We all want to be Chinese!

Contar, I have 9 minutes before my lunchtime is over :):) so want to say "gracias mucho por visitar mi blog. BIENVENIDOS" When my mum sees all the Spanish friends I have made and the Spanish sentences I can now make, she will be so impressed with me ..haha :):).

OOOh, Roberta, my mum and your mum has something in common!! I just found out that my mother when she was young, on top of working at a factory and peddling cigarettes, she also sewed canvas cloth for some manufacturer. So I guess it was her profession too that she had to use the sewing machine :).

I will let you know how the whole sewing machine thing turned out. It may seriously take me a looooong time.

I took out my dremel on Sunday hoping to drill a hole through a super tiny hurricane lamp. I had to pack it away again without any success!! Sighhhhh, it's not easy to learn a new skill or a new tool!!

Dale!!!! Lunchtime is officially over 12 minutes ago but I just had to squeeze this reply in :):).

Be sure I will tell her you are one of them to say she looks young. Rosanna though may have to take the cake with her Dad's comment. I was rolling on the floor with both your response!!! ..will reply to that later.

Why do you need a sewing machine in my place? Anyway, mum has 2, the other one is a "high tech"-auto embroider (??!), can stitch with blindfold type ..hahaha. Won't know the difference.

BUT what I really want to say and tell everyone is I have received the most most most beautiful damask screens from you!! Not only are they beautifully packed and perfectly made, they have to be sewed with the most wonderfully apt fabric I have ever seen. The colours and patterns are so vivid and gorgeous!! They really look better in real life and I didn't think that was possible. I am going to cut and paste this onto your blog post comment box.

Thank you so very much, Dale. I am super duper happy with the purchase and your gifts. I am behind in posts but I will definitely show them off in time.

With this post, I found out that a sewing machine powered by foot motion is called a treadle machine :). As you can see, I am really hopeless with home appliances. Ironical as I have owned 4 antique treadle stands for almost 20 years. Just the metal part, no wooden table top or drawer. I bought them from a bazaar in Indonesia and used them as side table bases. :) I "treadle" those alot ..lol

I went back to your Bellabelle Blog and click on January archive and lo and behold, it was there, a pic of your shed. See how much I love that room of yours? Got it the 1st try!

You are absolutely right! That Singer of yours is exactly like my mum's. What is uncanny is your treadle stand and wooden top and drawers. OMG! I was just thinking before I went over to your post how I wished mum kept her own sewing machine. The one I grew up with listening to as a child when she was sewing. You see, the one from my grandma was only given to mum when granny passed away last year. The one I grew up with was long gone. I remembered how the sound of mum at her machine late in the night when things were all settled always made me feel real secure and safe. Now that machine looked exactly like yours. It had a base and wooden top etc etc. Not my gran's which is hand cranked and thus no metal treadle stand or wooden top/drawers.

I was trying to research the age of my grandma's machine. Do you know how old is yours? If it belonged to your great grandma, surely it must be like more than a decade old.

I still wonder how in the world my grandmother afford her machine. Even back in those days, it would have cost a hundred over dollars or 3 months wages for people like my granddad, who was an incorrigible gambler to make matters worse..LOL.Mum's monthly wage when I was a child was S$150 a month? Those were the days when childcare cost S$1 a day :):).

O yes, Cindy, Dad is cool but mum is hot! Dad finally told us over dinner a few months back that he fell in love with mum because GET THIS: he loved the way she walked!!!!!! Can you imagine marrying someone for the way she walks? hahaha.

Probably easy peasy for you , Mercedes :), the romper I mean . Imagine when Liberty finally blogs and she makes a post like this about you :). There will be a million things to blog about for her and mummy. :)

Rosanna, you are hilarious :) and your dad even more so. I can't wait to tell my mum. You will soon find out the secret of my mum's jet black hair. HINT: They can be bought from the shelves :):). She also has a million home remedies for all sorts of things:

home made hair growth tonic also good for eye brows and long lashes(I have 1 unused bottle of funny herbs with a foul smell, you can have it..lol), radiant face (evening primrose oil, not to eat, break it open and then rub on face, she swears by that, will never need foundation after that) aloe vera and olive oil for hair again and always, lots of water! Drink for good skin & health all round.

It's alllllll hard work :):).

My dad never leaves home without first blowing his hair..mum says when Elvis Presley was all the rage in the 50s, dad would wrap his hair in a bandana to bed so that his hair would not be messed up the next morning...hahaha. We were all in stitches when told that story.

I wonder if dad will kill me if he knows I share all his deep dark secrets here. Maybe he'll just deny all this including the fact that I am his daughter!LOL

Kathi, I don't know about happy hours.:):) Mum may not be too happy since I am a sloooooooooooooow learner :). I am very scared of the machine's needle. Unlike stitching by hand, that needle seems to have a life of its own...LOL!

Sorry dear but "Chi" when pronounced in a different tone, can have a very rude meaning ...now "Dalechi" (pronounced Dah Lei Chi), on the other hand, sounds suitably Indian like "Thangkachi" which means little or younger sister in Tamil:). I think I shall name one of my dolls "Dalechi". Like the other girls, she is also an artisan, particularly good with fabric. :)

O dear Ira, I wished I added a few things too!! Forgot a book..sigh and maybe that something could have been better made..arghh! :) But there is something else in there I made that I am really quite pleased with..so you may have to pretend that I just sent you that something else :).

Please post your peonies :). Who needs long nails when you can grow peonies!!

SUSAN!!!!! What freaking gorgeous machines!!!!! Mommy can sew.....and I can't sew worth a shit. I can't even put a button on!!! This is weird, because mom has been in full sewing mode for the past month, which she hasn't been in for quite awhile! Methinks your mom and my mom would get along very well ;-).

One of my aunt (my least favourite relative) actually called me when I was at work to say that the machine should stay with a daughter and not a daughter in law!! OMG! That was even before my grandma passed away. I told her I can't believe you guys are fighting over a sewing machine!!! and asked her to keep the machine. Seriously, I don't even think she sews, like you, hehe and me of course :). AND I think these machines can still be bought for a few hundred dollars on ebay?

About 1 month after my grandma passed away, the siblings decided to draw lots for who gets the machine (!!! ) Mum said no thank you so my dad did not participate. An uncle (I love all my uncles & Auntie Lucy :)) picked the winning ticket and then told my dad he would give it to mum!! So I guess you can say mum "won" it at a "giveaway" ..LOL!

Is it any wonder that I find the generosity of my blog friends amazing??

In death, or approaching death, brings out the worst of people. Sadly, I've seen this happen way too many times.

What it really comes down to is love. People don't feel they got the love they wanted/needed/deserved and so then the material items become the love they never had.

Sorry, didn't mean to get all deep on you, but, good for your mom for taking the high road and not participating in these shenanigans. It was beneath her and looks like, she really won out over all by standing up to her convictions.

If you are happy, it's so easy to be generous. :)

An interesting fact, those with the least, are usually the most generous in their charitable contributions, cause they know how important it is. :)

O Dale, I was just going to email you and Cindy :):). Found new places of interests :).

How I share your sentiments, my dear friend :). I am flabbergasted sometimes by how petty some people can be, and they are well off too. One thing mum has also thought us good is pride and self respect. Although we came from humble background, she taught us not to beg or ask for any favours..lol :). We were even made to return toys people gave to us if she thought we had asked for them!

Sans, Your parents are so beautiful!! How lovely to be able to share your crafts with your mom. What a terrific pin cushion shaped like a sewing machine. I love old singer machines and like you, I inherited a Singer featherweight that was my grandmothers when I was young. It makes it so much more special. I found a web site when I bought another old Singer recently that had the dates when it was made if you have the serial number, it is interesting to find out where and when it was made.http://www.singerco.com/support/serial_numbers.htmlMini Hugs, Jean

I missed some comments and answers.What I really love is seeing how people are similar when feelings are involved. No matter the country, religion or language. My goodness,I know it's trivial to say but I really think that women sould be in charge of governements and blogging swould be compulsory at school. ( I know this about blogging is silly but it might be a good way to teach listening and not just hearing)BTW nasty aunts are UNIVERSAL ! I'll tell you about my "aunties dearest"....

That's a really helpful link, Jean! Thanks!!! My dad just emailed me to tell me that he found a number saying "125043 SIMANCO" and another along another bar that says " SIMANCO 2816" so I am not sure whether either number is even the serial number. Doesn't look like the numbers on the link you gave me either :). I will go home this weekend and see if I can identify a serial number :). How cool it is if it is made in the 1800s :):).

I think there are enough of us to form a Singer Se-wingers Club ..LOL!

Hehe Rosanna, I always take you seriously! In primary school here, writing a journal is part of the school curriculum but only teachers get to read the journal :). If rules are set (I am sure the schools will not allow dirty laundry, hehe) then I think blogging as a compulsory subject is a good idea :).

By the way, to add salt to the wound , people tell me I bear a resemblance in appearance to this aunt of mine! Argggggh! LOL

Ok, dad if you are reading this , I am not bad-mouthing your sister, ok? :) (That's a smiley face, Dad)

! So nice gesture of Meli!, I can tell you is a person maravillosa.n sky.! That grace!, my mother (who no longer) .tambien gave me a machine and sewing, when I got married, I was my grandmother, very old, the penalty is that at that time I lived in a very tiny House, and not me cabia furniture, so my mom, I was a bag with a small engine.You don't know how badly I feel every time that I remember that I have the furniture of the machine. In the end things that happen.Gives a kiss on my part to your mother and tell her that it is very beautiful, does not need make-up. And your father is great. Cuidalos, when not, in my case, are always miss .(aunque_yo_pienso_que_están_conmí).Your friend Carmen kisses.And when you want to come to Spain, you know here, I have.

Dale, I am just about to leave for a run. It's 6am here on Sunday morning. Just saw that you left a comment on my other post, you must be taking a pre-dinner cocktail break :):) since it is 5pm your time?

Hey You!!! Just looking through your blog.....giggling over the skeletons.....but then I seen the pin cushions, and thought I have one of those too! My step-dad brought it back from one of his travels when I was younger...actually I think all of us girls got one that year! Pretty neat huh!

I think these pin cushions are the best, next to Meli's of course, which is handmade and unique. Mum's have been around for a long time and see how it still look so good. So keep yours well. You know I had to look for sometime before I found one for Meli at Chinatown in Singapore. The shopkeepers told me every time Western tourists walked into the shop, they buy these in the dozens as souvenirs. haha

So goooooooooooood to see you back. Let me go see if you have posted something new .

ME

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These blogs chronicle my journey into the wonderful world of miniatures.
"The Beginning" is the prequel to it all, the one that triggered my obsession with the weird and wonderful world of doll houses.
"My Maharajah's Palace" is a journal of the trials and tribulations en-route to the building of my Indian Palace.
"Projects, Musings & AOB" is like my workroom or scrapbook of anything minis.